A Very Lucky Girl

"... she rejoiced as only mothers can in the good fortunes of their children ." -Louisa May Alcott I should probably begin this tribute to these certain 21 influential people in my life with a post dedicated to the woman who experienced labor in order for the world to experience me. If you're about those Thank-You notes I can provide an address for her upon request. Shari Nelson Arceneaux and I have a running joke about what a "good mother" would do (which is typically the opposite of what actually happens). It came from a novel that we both read that I can't remember the name of now. But my good mother instilled a love of reading in me from a very young age. I can remember being put to bed with visions of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Anne of Green Gables swirling through my imagination. She taught me how to make the essentials in the kitchen: spaghetti, spicy pretzels, and ultimate chocolate chip cookies.  She's one of my biggest cheerleaders and the b...

You think I was gonna take that bullet and plaster her age across the Internets for all to see? You've got jokes! Shari Nelson Arceneaux, my beautiful mother, is XX today. And yes, I do mean 20 in roman numerals. Born August 7 to William and Sharon Nelson, Shari flourished as she grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana, attending high school with her future husband, Paul Arceneaux (one of these days I'll blog about that volatile high school relationship. You'll read in rapt attention). She graduated and moved to the land of the horned frogs, Fort Worth, Texas, to study nursing at Texas Christian University and join the Delta Delta Delta sorority chapter. Unlike myself, she spent all four years of college in Texas heat and went on to have a successful career in nursing in several states nationwide. She's faithfully followed my father in every move our family had to make, keeping her complaints to herself or behind closed doors. She's reared two decent kids (we're works...